


Gods and Monsters

by MooeyDooey



Category: Dangan Ronpa
Genre: 2 spooky, AU, Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, M/M, There will be other characters but these are the three main dudes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-05
Updated: 2013-12-12
Packaged: 2017-12-14 00:40:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/830704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MooeyDooey/pseuds/MooeyDooey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Saving people, hunting things, the family Buisness. A Dangan Ronpa AU based loosely off of the television series "Supernatural". This story follows the tale of two brothers, and they ride their motorcycles around Japan and enforce the balance between that which is spiritual and that which is human. One night, an angel appears before them, with an important mission that only these two brothers can accomplish. Can they save Tokyo, before all of it's citizens are executed by a yokai of ultimate despair??</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> "In the land of Gods and Monsters I was an angel  
> Living in the garden of evil  
> Screwed up scared doing anything that I needed  
> shining like a firey beacon" 
> 
> God's dead I said baby that's alright with me

The first time Mondo Oowada ever saw a demon, he was 4 years old. He remembered it vaguely, sometimes had colorful nightmares about the experience. 

He had gotten into a disagreement with his brother. He could not remember what it was about, or why he felt the need to run outside of their home in that moment, but he did. Back then they had not lived close to any cities. They lived in a small house out nearby a dense forest, a place there their mother could relax and breathe some fresh air. He had run off, across the earth, into the tall grass close by where he knew it would be more difficult for his brother to find him. He ran and he ran, as fast as his small legs could take him. He soon tripped over a large rock he could not see. 

He fell to the earth flat on his face. He would have pushed himself right back up and kept running, but was stopped by a strange sound. It sounded familiar…. A slow scraping. The sound of a knife being sharpened. Back… and forth. Back and forth. 

The night air grew chill. 

Back and Forth. 

Mondo felt the hair stand up on the back of his neck. 

Back and Forth. 

He pushed himself up, slowly, and looked in front of him. 

Back… 

He saw a red face peering at him. Grinning at him with a mouth too impossibly large for its own head, with sharp and jagged teeth poking out of it. Its eyes were white and wide as well, tilted with a chilling glee. It had the body of an old man but while old men were hunched because they were too tired to stand upright, this creature was hunched as if ready to attack. 

It held a long knife in its hand. On that hand, each black fingernail also looked like its own knife. 

“What are you running from, young one? Have you done something bad?” it said in a deep and ominous voice. Its teeth clacked together like wooden shoes on a cold stone floor. 

He was not sure what happened next. His brother told him one story, but Mondo was not entirely willing to admit that he might have pissed himself and started crying (though for the record that would /not/ have been his fault or something to be embarrassed about or make him less of a man, dammit. He was a kid! Kids do that!). Whether that part happened or not, it wasn’t long before Daiya himself came charging out from the tall grass and went to attack the red faced horror. Somewhere in the fight Daiya had ended up stabbing the thing with its own knife. Mondo remembered the sound of the demon’s pained howl, and how it ran back off into the trees. How Daiya had wasted no time in scooping Mondo up and sprinting back for the house with him. 

Mondo did not remember anything about clinging to Daiya for the next three hours and insisting he not be put down until he fell asleep on his brother, and anyone who said that was true was a liar and bastard. 

But Mondo no longer had short legs. His limbs were long, full grown. He was starting to get up to his late twenties, many years well past the age he could (and would) be held by his older brother. He was stronger now, a bit wiser too. He learned that the creature that had almost attacked him was called “Namahage”. He learned that this was not the only spirit out in the world that could cause harm to others. He learned that the world was full of both good and evil forces beyond scientific explanation that sometimes had to be taught a lesson. He learned that pompadours, while very cool looking, are very easy targets for demons to grab onto and swing you around by and that being swung around by your hair is indeed a very painful experience to have to go through. He experimented with hair styles and finally settled on his current one. Still bleached at the top of his head, short, combed and slicked backwards. (Though he wouldn’t admit it, part of him was a bit put out that his older brother could still pull off a pompadour hairstyle without ever getting it tugged at or chopped off). In order to make up for his missing cool hairstyle, he got a tattoo. One all the way across and down his back, of a dragon. Then he got several others. Each one served as some sign of protection, fortune, or charm that aided him against supernatural forces. Kanji and other symbols all up and down his arms, over his chest, illustrations of dragons and foo dogs (and yes, a lucky cat in there too) that gave him protection against being possessed by spirits or controlled. 

Mondo Oowada grew into a hunter. Well, Less of a hunter, more of a judge of spiritual kind that kept balance in the world between humans and demons. And as far as he was concerned, this was how it had always been for him and his brother. Ever since he was only 10 years old, after their mother had fallen victim to the demon that had been secretly plaguing her for many years. That year was when his brother taught him how to load and fire a gun, when they started to sneak books out of libraries with information about Japanese folklore in them. Technically, yes, they were still criminals. They had no income. They lived day to day by stealing the money they could though small to moderate sized scams, just enough to get by on and enough to get gas for their motorcycles. Nothing anyone would miss too much. But to Mondo, they were /not/ criminals. They were not thieves. Daiya and him were damn /heroes/. He didn’t need a parade to know it, they saved lives. Maybe it wasn’t “respectable” like a high school degree and wage job, but he figured those things were over rated anyhow. They were the “Diamond Brothers”. The most fearsome hunting team in all of Japan. 

All Mondo needed was his fists, a bike, and his brother. That was the good life. That was /his/ life. 

The two of them sat on the edge of a small wooden bridge that went over a river of water. They were smoking, a usual nightly routine for them while they discussed specific circumstances behind one of their cases. Their legs dangled off, over the edge, almost skimming the surface of the water. 

“As long as it’s not another goddamn Namahage,” Mondo growled out with little patience behind his tone. Really, he was going to flip a shit if they had to face another one of those causing a rukus again. Sure, dealings now with the Namahage were generally simple. It almost came as second nature. But much like a child who is fed a sweet drink mixed with cough medicine when they are young, Mondo felt a nostalgic pang of sickness and contempt any time he had to face off against another damn Namahage. 

“You’ve lucked out, Mon-chan~” 

Mondo gave his brother a look that meant to imply something along the lines of “I’m a grown man, Onii-chan. You can stop calling me that now”. He would not, however, voice his opinion on account of the fact that he still regularly called his brother ‘Onii-chan’ when they were not around other people. He couldn’t help it, old habits die hard. So Daiya was Onii-chan and Mondo was Mon-chan and they sat around smoking their cigarettes, grown ass brothers still referring to one another like they were sucking juice boxes in the nursery. 

Daiya chuckled. He reached over to ruffle his brother’s hair affectionately before he continued. 

“Really, lil bro. This one sounds much closer to Tengu territory than Namahage,” he explained. 

“Tengu? Serious?” Mondo questioned in a surprised tone. And rightfully so. “Sure, they used to be a handful… but there hasn’t been a Tengu lashing out for no reason for a …. Lotta years”. He took another drag from his cigarette. 

“Right. So, that means either we’ve got someone messing with our Tengu population, or the Tengu had his reasons behind attacking. Best to go off and try to track one down, to see what’s up with the Dharma around these parts right now,” Daiya concluded. 

Mondo did not seem pleased with this conclusion. Mondo was indeed not pleased, because this meant another weekly trip up into the mountains trying to track down some yokai whose idea of fun was usually staying as evasive as possible and leaving rocks in his boots. 

Mondo did not have the time to respond with his contempt for the situation. Before he spoke there was the light sound of fluttering wings behind them, as a deep voice announced itself to the two of them. 

“My apologies for interrupting your conversation.”


	2. Born to Die

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When an angel speaks of holy missions, it is man's duty to listen. Then, to question.

Mondo and Daiya froze up, both of their hands already hovering over their guns. Neither sensed danger on their radar, but it was always best to be safe. 

The brothers both turned their heads slowly, and looked back to whoever stood behind them on the bridge. 

The man who stood behind them was clearly, on his outer appearance, a Japanese man. He was in fact, almost eerily average for a Japanese man. Average height, average face shape, very dark colored black hair and dark colored brown eyes. The only things that stood out distinctly about him was his wardrobe. This man was a soldier, clearly, since he was dressed in full uniform. He had his helmet tucked under his arm, military boots all the way up to his knees, camouflage print pants and jacket, open just enough to reveal his t-shirt underneath. The only other thing that stood out to Mondo was his eyebrows. Those suckers were /large/. 

Despite how worrying they looked, Mondo mentally ruled out the idea of this being some eyebrow based demon. Yes they were suspiciously large, but not too large for a normal human to be able to develop on his own. 

… Though he had never seen eyebrows quite like that. Those eyebrows were goddamn intense. They practically jumped off of his face. And now the man was staring at Mondo’s face. Shit, he probably noticed Mondo staring at nothing besides his eyebrows. Now might have been a good time for Mondo to look away, but he found that he could not. How? Wasn’t there some army regulation about keeping control of one’s- 

“And… you are?” Daiya questioned the stranger. Of course, he had that smile on. The one he always had, even when dealing with demons who could quite possibly tear his jugular vein out with nothing but their ears if they really wanted to. Mondo admired that about his brother, it seemed like such a strong and ballsy thing to do. 

The man opposite from them bowed respectfully. When he spoke his tone was even, though slightly amplified. As if he was worried that perhaps he naturally spoke too quietly, and had to raise his voice ever so slightly in order to be heard by others. 

“My apologies for not introducing myself immediately. My name is Zadkiel. I am…. An angel of the lord,” he said. He spoke the last part with a small bite of resignation. 

Mondo and Daiya’s eyebrows went up at the same time. They were surprised. 

“… You’re shitting me,” Mondo finally commented. Before the other man could cut in to try to explain himself, Mondo continued. “I mean, it’s just a little weird, if you know what I mean. We’ve seen plenty of spirits around here, but we haven’t really run into any of your type,” he said. 

“Yeah. I’ve heard maybe, what, once or twice about an angel paying a visit? But they always stick to the chapels,” Daiya interjected. Chapels themselves were not very frequently built. Natrually, if an angel had any business on the earth, they’d go to a continent like Europe where their following was much more popular. 

“Not to mention how the whole angel visiting goes in general,” Mondo added. He had talked to a foreign hunter one time, who had been visited by an Angel. That explanation was a significantly more dramatic experience than this one. “Flies from the ceiling in some big burst of light, Feathers flying all over the place and the big flashy ‘I am an angel of the lord, bearing a message from God’,” he said. 

“Ah. Yes,” the angel responded. He had the face of a man who was all too familiar with that large flair and was, quite frankly, a bit tired of the amount of bullshit he had to face. “I am very sorry for disappointing your expectations.” he announced with a sudden determination rippling through his voice. “I, however, do not follow those entrances. Perhaps because I am Shintoist.” 

… 

The moment of silence settled over the group thickly. Quite literally, one could hear crickets from both sides of the river chirping along to themselves to fill the silence. 

Daiya was the one who finally spoke up, to receive clarification. 

“So you’re… An angel for Shintoism?” 

“No. My brothers and sisters are all strictly from Christianity,” Zadkiel replied rigidly. 

“… Christen Angel. Who practices Shinto” 

“Yes.” 

“… Ah,” Daiya said. He couldn’t think of much else to reply with. Although he had no reply, the look on his face said that he was contemplating the idea of it carefully. He seemed to accept this information with a smile and a shrug. “Well, all right then!” 

Mondo was less accepting than his brother. 

“/Bull/shit!” he exclaimed. “You really think we’re dumb enough to fall for some dumbass lie like that? It doesn’t even make sense!” 

With the precision and patience of a man who either saw this coming, or encountered this conversation many times before, the angel explained himself. 

“I am, by nature and creation, an angel of the God of Christianity. Angels, of course, know the existence of other spiritual forces. However, it is their belief of “Our Father is the one true source of power and wisdom” that generates our religious beliefs. I believe that there is some power and source behind Christianity, but not that it is the source of creation in everything that ever was, nor that Christianity is the ultimate answer to the universe and its questions. Therefore, I have found that Shinto beliefs suit my own lifestyle much more,” he said. 

Mondo could not help but notice how rigid this man was during their “conversation”. A soldier was a very fitting look for him. He had the posture of someone who was trying to balance glass books on their head and couldn’t afford to have any of them slipping off. His stance was rigid, his voice was rigid, his eyes were fixed ahead with such concentration that Mondo sort of wanted to offer him a seat and a glass of water to make him calm down a bit. 

It still didn’t stop Mondo from having his suspicions. If this guy ever showed up again, he’d be keeping a close eye on him. Especially since his older brother did not seem properly suspicious at all. Oh no, he was /loving/ this. The twinkle in his eyes and the smile on his face said it all; he was amused as hell right now. 

“Well, Mr. Shintoist Angel of the Christian Lord,” Daiya began saying. “I suppose that you didn’t pay us a visit just to explain the holy mysteries of supernatural religion, did ya?”. He took another cigarette after his question, lighting it up and blowing a slow cloud of smoke into the night air. 

“That is correct,” The angel said. He was thankful for the change of conversation topics. “I’ve been tasked with a very important mission to complete. Both of you have been specifically named and your services requested to help me with my mission.” 

“And if we say no?” Mondo chimed in, cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth now. That made the angel stop, staring blankly at him. 

“But…” he said, sounding somewhat defeated and confused. “I have not even told you what my request is yet… and of course, you are allowed to refuse if you want to. I have no intention to force you into it, nor do I have anything to barter this. The only benefit you get from this is protecting the innocent from a terrible fate.” 

Mondo tried to look unconcerned, but his curiosity and investment was growing. Whoever told this angel about them had them pegged down perfectly. After all, what else had the Diamonds Brothers done all these years besides riding around Japan on their motorcycles and exorcizing bad spirits for absolutely no charge or compensation? He paused, he frowned, he took another drag from his cigarette. Zadkiel took this as a sign to “go on”. 

“… Hyakki Yagyo.” 

Ah, the Yokai Parade. Mondo was very familiar with this one. He and Daiya had even seen it personally two times. The “Yokai Parade” was a time honored tradition that had begun thousands of years previous, before man had even inhabited Japan. On some nights in the summer months, a large group of Yokai and demons of all sorts would be led through paths in the forest and the streets by Nurarihyon. The head Yokai, ever since humans became more and more populated on the island, had kept his parade mostly to forest and mountains paths, making a visit in populated streets in only one village. The Yokai Parade had one worrying aspect to it, “Should any human cast eyes upon the Hyakki Yagyo, they shall immediately die”. Small cause for concern, but humans were fine as long as they had protection. If a human had a scroll that had been hand written for them by a onmyoji (one of those “anti-yokai” specialists) they’d be fine. The only village the parade went through knew about it every year, and the dates it would be, so they either stayed inside or all made sure they had scrolls on those days. Mondo didn’t see how this could be a problem, until- 

“Nurarihyon has been usurped by another yokai,” Zadkiel said. 

“That’s not possible,” Daiya replied immediately. He looked much less amused now. “Nurarihyon has been leading the parade ever since its beginning. He’s strong, and he has protection. If any other spirit was able to defeat him, it would be too powerful to have any business with that sort of event.” 

“Unless this demon planned on taking the parade through the streets of Tokyo,” Zadkiel responded curtly. 

A hush fell over the group once more. This time not from confusion but from unsettling worry and fear. They didn’t need to ask the angel to clarify what he meant by that. Someone, some spirit, was planning a mass execution in Tokyo. They didn’t interrupt the angel anymore. 

“The city is too large to get everyone protection scrolls. Additionally, if we try to alert the media to evacuate the city, it will be useless. They couldn’t even evacuate the city for a human terrorist attack if they wanted to. The only option is to expel the now reigning Yokai from her throne, before she can lead the parade into Tokyo. I have certain powers from heaven, but they are not strong enough to take on someone this powerful on my own. Therefore…. I need a hunter. The /two/ best hunters in all of Japan,” he said. He bowed slightly (really, it was so confusing. How could this be a western angel? He spoke like a Japanese man, looked like a Japanese man, behaved like a Japanese man… Mondo didn’t get it). 

“Please, Diamond Brothers. I need your assistance, to hunt this Yokai.” 

“Who the hell was powerful enough to knock Nurarihyon out of place??” Mondo asked. There was a part that confused him… ‘she’. A female Yokai. Normally, it was the male Yokai that played into power games with one another, who fought the wars and battles and played cruel tricks on one another while the women took less direct and more subtle paths to gaining their power and respect. 

“She’s very intelligent. She has all but hidden her traditional name, to block any name based spells from being performed against her. The only thing I’ve been able to find out about her on my own is that she has taken on a human form, and a human name. She calls herself ‘Junko Enoshima’. She will not be able to be found or tracked until directly before the parade begins.” 

“… So… What do we need to do? This doesn’t sound like an easy job,” Daiya asked. Mondo knew the look on his face. He was already forming a plan, weighing the pros and cons and thinking over the situation carefully. He was like that, a fast thinker. 

“We have until the Yokai Parade to collect the ingredients for a spell we can use against her. The spell will be able to weaken her enough to attack and defeat her. We will need to collect the Tears of a ghost, Heart of an avenging spirit, and the blood of a vampire tree. If you agree to help, I shall assist you to the best of my abilities and accompany you on your travels. Likewise, I shall be next to you in the final battle, as your comrade,” Zadkiel said. Stiff as ever, spoken as if he was addressing a general instead of two complete strangers. 

The first Yokai Parade was only two months away. That gave them only 20 days each for all of the ingredients they would need to capture. Sensing that this was an important decision, but time was short, Daiya waved a hand. 

“Come back tomorrow. Same spot. We’ll give you an answer then,” he said. 

“… A wise decision. One must think carefully about making such commitments. I shall return here the same time I first appeared before you, and shall hear your answer then,” he said. 

Mondo blinked, heard the rush of wings again, and the angel was gone. 

They didn’t speak about the incident until the next day, at noon. 

“I’m not sure about this, lil bro,” Daiya began. Mondo was in the process of stuffing rice into his mouth, so understandably he was a bit taken aback by the sudden segway into a serious conversion (‘But ok, guess we can talk about that right now. Sure, not like we’ll get a better time for it if we wait an hour’ Mondo thought but did not say) 

“I know, seems sketchy. But I’ve been thinkin’ about it and…. Shit, bro. We can’t say no, can we? I mean, if we say no, all those people are going to die for sure,” Mondo responded once he had swallowed his large helping of fried rice. 

“I know,” Daiya said. He was calm (in the wise way he always was when they had to make an important decision together). “But… even if we do this, there is no chance we’ll succeed. We’ve been up against our fair share of spirits gone sour, but nothing this powerful before-“ 

“So?! We’re men! That’s what we do!” Mondo said with sudden passion. “Isn’t that what you’ve always told me?! A true man stands up for what is right, does the best he can, even when facing something much larger than himself. To protect those who need it!” 

Daiya smiled at Mondo. That smile turned into a grin, and then into a laugh. He reached out, ruffling his younger brother’s hair. “That’s right, Mon-chan! Onii-chan was just asking to make sure you were prepared for the worst. Wanted to make sure you still had that fighting spirit in you. If you want to go into this, I shall too,” he said. 

That night the angel Zadkiel returned to the bridge. When he arrived, the Diamond Brothers were standing side by side. They had their motorcycles behind them, off of the bridge, packed with all of their hunting supplies. The two wore their matching leather jackets, one cigarette for each brother as well, both grinning with wild excitement. 

“… You accept?” Zadkiel asked. 

“We accept,” the brothers replied in unison. 

“Then we begin with the tears of a ghost. I’ve already located a target for us to collect from-” the angel said. 

“Great! Then, hop on the back of my bike. You shout the directions!” Daiya said, clearly cutting in before Zadkiel had the chance to offer to magically “poof” them into their next destination with his feather fluffing angel powers. 

“Welcome to the team! Zad-…” Mondo began. It suddenly occurred to him that this angel had a very Western name. A western name that was fucking impossible to pronounce without sounding like an asshat. “Zat- … zatto… krie… zat… Fuck it, I’m just calling ya ‘Hey You’ from now on,” he finally settled on. He began to turn away to walk to his bike, but the angel stopped him, with an excited smile. 

“No, please. I’ve already thought of an appropriate solution,” the angel explained. He bowed once, formerly, before standing back up straight. He took a small wallet out of his pocket, opening it, and looking at the ID inside. 

“Please call me…. Ishimaru. Kiyotaka Ishimaru.”


	3. Tears of a Ghost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The journey begins. Mondo, Ishimaru, and Daiya set off to collect the tears from a ghost. The very first component in their three part spell to weaken Junko at the Yokai Parade.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAH WOW THIS CHAPTER WAS A LOT LONGER THAN I INTENDED FOR IT TO BE. Anywho, please enjoy this one! This one is mostly Daiya POV, because he's the main player in the collection of this ingredient. It will go to Mondo POV for the heart of the avenging spirit, and to IShimaru POV for the Jubokko chapter. 
> 
> Next up, an intermision between missions! The intermissions are where we'll see the most of Ishimaru and Mondo bonding. wink wonk. ;D 
> 
> Many thanks to tumblr user Jazztronic for being my editor. q 3 q dat gurl is the best

PART 1 

Daiya, for one, was actually quite thankful that his lil bro finally had someone to bicker with. Mondo was a spitfire growing up, he had always been that way. Daiya could never keep a straight face long enough to humor him when Mondo got into one of his “grump master moods”. 

But this new Angel? This… Ishimaru, as they now called him? The two of them had been going back and forth nonstop since the beginning of their journey together. 

The current squabble that Daiya was observing with an amused smile started when Chihiro called. 

Chihiro Fujisaki was their most important contact. A technological genius, a planning and recon expert, and an all around master of manipulation, Chihiro was the Diamonds Brothers’ lifeline. Without Chihiro the two of them would be running around all of Japan with their jackets on backwards and forgetting their own names (Literally something Chihiro organized and reminded them of; their long list of false aliases and identities that they had fake badges and IDs for. Come to think of it, Chihiro also made all of their fake badges and IDs. Chihiro did a lot of shit and Daiya and Mondo would be lost without him). 

Chihiro had met Mondo during the one year Daiya tried to make the little stinker go to a normal school and get a normal education. The two had met there, and had been best friends ever since. Those were back in the days when Chihiro dressed as a girl because he was uncomfortable with his “unmasculine body”. Participating in their hunting activities was just the boost of confidence the kid needed. Nothing said “I am a man, dammit, no matter how slim my body is or how round my face is” like facing off and assisting in the extermination of an evil spirit. Mondo had only begun by telling him about what he and his older bro did with their time. Then it was “So, I heard a rumor that…” then a “Oh! I heard about those on a website for folklore! Here, let me show you how to kill that…” 

13 years later brought them to this moment. Chihiro had his own job (professional freelance programmer for a bunch of important soundin’ companies), his own office at home. This was a personal choice on his part, because there was nothing Chihiro liked more than sitting around his home in his pajamas while working. He could snack on all the instant microwave meals he wanted, and get the latest copy of some video game going or lift weights while he had a phone meeting. He could set up games, computers, snacks, an entire wall of telephones with set numbers and “corporations” written on them (so Chihiro could pretend to be anyone he needed to be at any point, to get Daiya and Mondo out of whatever heap of trouble they got themselves into). Sometimes he was a police chief. Sometimes he was head honcho of some big newspaper. Chihiro had the balls to be whoever he needed to be, which gave Mondo and Daiya the opportunity to be whoever /they/ needed to be in order to collect evidence and take closer looks at corpses on crime scenes. 

Daiya really fucking liked that kid. Ever since he got his confidence, grew taller and thicker and happier, he was as fun as a barrel of drunken monkeys. If Mondo was the grumpmaster, in Daiya’s book, that made Chihiro the “sassmaster”. 

Chihiro gave Mondo a call once they were checked into their hotel room. A two bed deal, as Ishimaru insisted he did not need to sleep nor did he intend to try. Mondo sat on the bed while he talked with the phone to his ear, Daiya laid down on his own bed to relax and watch the fun unfold, and Ishimaru began his rounds. Checking the locks on the doors, checking the locks on the windows, setting some charms in strategic spots, then full on inspecting the room floor to ceiling for any sort of worrying element. 

“I- … No I … I mean it’s already /done/ because…” Mondo was sputtering at the phone. He couldn’t quite seem to find a way to explain their situation without it sounding ‘stupid’, so he just went for it. “Some Angel guy showed up and talked to the Tengu…. Yeah. … No, /real/ Angel. That type, yeah. … I don’t know, apparently it went rogue or something but it’s “all fixed now” so we can get to the “more important matters” because…. What??? I- … No. Why???? … I don’t even know /how/ to do what you’re talking about so looks like you’re out of luc- …. Seriously? We’re seriously doing this right now. … No. No, not listening, instruct all you want-“ a groan. “Kid, come onnnnnnn.” 

Chihiro’s stubbornness, on whatever he was requesting of Mondo, won. It always did. 

Mondo took the phone away from his ear, putting it on speaker phone while he fiddled with it. Chihiro’s tenor tone drifted from the device. 

“Now, do you see the icon up in the corner of the screen?” he asked. Chihiro was the one who had given Mondo this cell phone, and paid for the monthly cellular service so the two of them could stay in contact. A sweet gesture, but Daiya’s little brother didn’t understand /shit/ about smartphones. 

“Yeah yeah, I got it,” Mondo droned out. Silence for a moment, before Chihiro’s face popped up on Mondo’s phone. 

“Ah! There we go,” Chihiro said happily. His long bangs were pulled back away from his face, clipped up and to the side with some bobby pins. Usually what he did when he was in the middle of a big project. “Now, hand the phone over to him.” 

Mondo held the phone out… towards Ishimaru. The Angel did not notice at first. He was too busy turning the water on and off in the sink while standing in the small kitchen area the hotel provided. Mondo had to clear his throat loudly in order to get Ishimaru’s attention. Ishimaru looked up, confused, head tilted slightly. His eyes finally hit the phone being held out towards him, seeing a stranger’s face on the screen. Ishimaru squinted, walked over… then held the phone to his ear. 

“Hello this is Kiyotaka Ishimaru, who may I ask is calling?” he said. 

“Oi. It’s a video chat, Dumbass. You don’t hold it up to your ear,” Mondo piped up. 

Ishimaru removed the phone from his ear. He didn’t look pleased at all. Oh no, he was quite put out (additionally, blushing, just a twinge from embarrassment). 

“First of all, I do not appreciate your tone. Despite the fact I have a human appearance and have made constant visits to earth and watch over its people, the last time I made a personal visit for a period long enough to have to make calls with others was during the late 1980s. I am very well educated in plenty of other matters, so not knowing how to handle one of these /new/ phones does not imply I lack any sort of knowledge. Second of all, I also do not appreciate the language you are using-“ 

“Why?” Mondo cut in. He was smiling crookedly now, poking fun. “That sort of talk too delicate for your virtuous ears??” 

“No! It is not a matter of delicacy, it’s a matter of your language being aggressive and disrespectful. In order to mend the disagreement between us, it would be proper of you to apologize now,” he explained. 

“Ok…. I am very sorry that you are a Moron,” Mondo said. Daiya could see the look on his face, and knew exactly what he was thinking. ‘It was /way/ too easy to ruffle his feathers. …. Heh. Feathers.’ . 

“Now you are just going out of your way to upset me!” Ishimaru declared. The phone was by his side, silent. Chihiro was either accidentally disconnected, or more likely, was listening in quietly to their squabble. 

It was like watching two very intense old men playing a killer game of table tennis. Daiya’s eyes darted from one to the other, just letting it go and seeing where their conversation went. 

“It’s not /my/ fault you’re an oversensitive guy!! I’d tell ya to take a chill pill, but I don’t think there’s room in your throat right now since it looks like you’ve got a stick shoved so far up your ass it’s hittin’ your tonsils!” 

‘Ooh, burn’ Daiya thought. 

Ishmaru’s eyebrows scrunched together with the power and passion of a thousand avenging angels. Was that an angelic power? Super-glare? Hell if Daiya knew. 

“You listen here! As the chairman of this mission, I /demand/ you start showing me more respect and apologize for that comment or else I-“ Ishimaru began and was once more cut off. 

“Oh!!!! Here, let me try again!” Mondo said loudly. He looked dramatically to the sky. “Lord in heaven, PLEASE forgive me. For I have offended the “CHAIRMAN” in charge of saving Tokyo from something he can’t fight on his own so had to crawl over asking US for help!” 

Ishimaru was standing right in front of Mondo now, looming over him. He looked angry enough to explode. “Are the lives of thousands of innocent people some sort of joke to you?!” he retorted. Mondo, not one to be trumped or loomed over, stood up to face off with Ishimaru. The glare between the two of them was so heated that Daiya could almost see lightening shooting out from their eyes. 

Yes, to the average viewer, this looked like the sort of situation that was getting out of control and had to be stopped before someone got their eye knocked out. Daiya knew better. He could look at this and see it for what it really was. 

If Mondo was serious about his negative feelings, and was moving to a “bad” sort of arguing, he would have gotten quiet. That’s how his lil bro was when he was actually furious. First quiet, then suddenly burst out with a demon-ish and unstoppable physical rage he had to take out on something or someone before he was able to calm down. Yes, their voices were getting louder and louder as their conversations went on, but it wasn’t a dark or destructive anger. It was…. Passion. Ishimaru, clearly, was a very passionate speaker. When faced with a passionate speaker, not one to be one-upped, Mondo would match that volume and energy and try to out-do it. 

So Daiya was thankful, and Daiya was happy. He could see it before his brother did, this was the beginning of a wonderful constructive rivalry, perhaps even a friendship. 

\- - - - - - - - 

PART 2

A woman is standing alone, in her home. She is a single woman in her mid thirties, hard working and heavily career oriented. Despite years of searching and dates she has not been able to find herself a companion to share her home with. She doesn’t mind. In her personal opinion, the men in her area are all good for nothing anyhow. She plays music quietly while she cooks meals for herself and the news plays on her television, muted because she much prefers the soft vocals of Noriko Awaya over the stories the television has to tell her. Her long hair is tied back in a low ponytail, and it exposes her serious face. 

She collects art. She’s well off enough to afford a home all on her own, and fill it with fine looking vases and photographs and portraits. She prides herself on her decorative abilities. Her home, after all, is her palace. It is a gem that has plagued her friends with jealousy over the past years. She smiles when she thinks about how her friends always to go her to ask for interior design advice. It makes her feel special, it makes her feel important. 

The smile disappears when she hears a sound coming from her bedroom. It’s a constant click, it’s irritating. She stands up and walks to her bedroom to fix what she knows is making the sound. 

Two weeks ago she bought a new piece of art for her home. It was a beautiful antique mirror. The glass on it was as clean and clear as a new one, but the intricate detailing of stone and wood around the edges of the mirror was aged and graceful. By far, it was the most impressive and expensive piece she had collected. The only problem with it was the surprising amount of noise it made. It creaked often. Sometimes it clicked, sometimes it seemed to almost be groaning. As if a lot of pressure was being applied to the woodwork. It was obnoxious. If it didn’t look so nice, she would have sold it off to someone else immediately. 

The woman walks into her bedroom. She walks up to the mirror on her wall. The sun is setting, and the setting colors add an orange and red glow into the bedroom. She holds the mirror by the edges and readjusts it. She notices while she is close to it that there is a smudge of color along the top edge. She tries to wipe it away, but it’s no good. 

“Fucking hell…” she mutters to herself. Was this some sort of imperfection she had missed before? Forget selling it to someone else, if this was some sort of flaw in the piece she was going to take it right back to the seller and demand her money back with interest. 

Something in the mirror catches her eye. 

It’s her own reflection. 

Has she always been this beautiful? Has her skin always shone so radiantly? She knows she is not a bad looking woman, but there is something unnatural about how beautiful and grand she looks right now. Her eyes seem wider and larger, her nose more pointed, her hair softer. It occurs to her that the hair she is seeing now is much longer than her own. It’s also not tied back, drifting over her shoulders. She reaches back to feel her own hair, still tied in its ponytail. 

The face in the mirror is suddenly covered in makeup. Pale skin like the moon, lips dark and the color of crushed sweet plums. She blinks and the figure is suddenly much less graceful. It’s hair is ratted and out of order, tangled and falling off of the scalp. Makeup runs down the figure’s face, and its eyes are bloodshot. Before she can scream, before she can move, the woman in the mirror reaches out with both hands and clasps them tightly around her throat. 

She’s screaming. They both are. Blood drips down from the top of the mirror where that smudge of color was. It looked black, now it is red. Blood flows heavily from the top of the mirror. It pools up on the floor. No matter where the blood falls on the mirror it never covers the woman inside. Her breathing is getting ragged. It falls until the entire background behind the woman is nothing but red blood and the woman outside can feel it dripping down her face and down her back 

She’s losing her breath

and its filling up her mouth and her throat while the grip tightens on it and she cant breathe and she cant see and the only thing she feels on her face is wet slickness

She breathes in but the air is ragged and sharp like knives

now all she can see is dark red bright yet the woman’s face in the mirror is a reflection of her own but its not and its veiled in red now everything is white and its black and its red 

Someone help. Please help. 

and she tasted iron on her tongue mixed with the suffocation sting of white powders and lipsticks and rouge- 

The Diamond brothers found their ghost case. 

Getting into the ward for the mentally disturbed at the hospital was easy enough once they were able to convince the clerk at the front desk that they were from Naicho. According to their story, they were here on an investigation because this sudden hysteria had hit several other groups of citizens in Japan and they were concerned about it being linked to a terrorist attack. Ishimaru could not join them on this part of their mission, because Chihiro had not created a set of false identity cards for him to use yet. He went on other “errands” while the two brothers entered the ward to question their victim. 

According to the reports, she was found in her home after three straight days of not showing up for work. She was found in her closet; barricaded herself into it. She was severely dehydrated, starved, had pulled out most of her hair and had pulled several of her own teeth out. When the brothers walked into her room they did so with care. Neither one wanted to add more stress to this poor woman than the amount she had already gone though. They were just there to get a confirmation that this was indeed a ghost sighting, figure out where in the house the ghost was and when it appeared, then leave her once more so she could continue recovering. 

Daiya took care of most of the talking. He was much better at dealing with people, especially women, than Mondo was. Mondo respected the hell out of women, but as soon as they got emotional, he got nervous. And when Mondo got nervous, he started raising his voice. Yelling at women was generally not an effective way to calm them down, or land in their good graces. 

Ishimaru was waiting for them once they were out of the hospital and back to their bikes. 

“Oi, Moron,” Mondo said first before they shared their findings. “You need to get a change of clothes,” he said. 

Ishimaru paused. Clearly he had mentally prepared himself for information, but not that sort of request. “Why??” he asked. He looked down briefly to himself. He wore the same clothes he had when he first appeared before the brothers. His soldier’s uniform, which was comfortable and functional. 

Mondo motioned to some civilians standing to the side by jutting his chin out in that direction. They were trying not to stare, clearly, but had their eyes all fixed on Ishimaru. “It’s weirding people out. You don’t blend in,” he said. 

Ishimaru tried not to grumble. “Well neither do you…” he said. Which was true, both Daiya and Mondo were very tall men. They wore leather jackets and had strange hair and Mondo stuck out like a sore thumb when he took his jacket off and all his tattoos up and down his arms were shown. 

“I.. It’s not the same thing!” Mondo exclaimed. 

As much as Daiya enjoyed witnessing their spats, he decided to move them on towards business. 

“It’s a ghost. Haunted artifact,” Daiya said. “The last thing she was able to coherently remember was something about a mirror, so it has to be an Ungaikyo,” he added. 

Mondo glared one moment longer at Ishimaru before he took his phone out, waving it slightly. “The kid just sent me that woman’s home address. He did a phone check in the house, no one picked up. I’m guessing there’s no one house sitting right now, we should be in the clear to let ourselves in,” he said. 

“Right,” Daiya responded with a short nod. 

Ishimaru, apparently, felt quite left out from the planning. “Then… we shall have to visit her home, gain entry into it, and inspect all of the mirrors in the home until we find which one is posessed!!” 

Daiya and Mondo turned at the same time to look at Ishimaru. 

“Thank you Captain fucking obvious,” Mondo commented. “Oh wait, sorry! I meant CHAIRMAN fucking obvious” 

The bickering continued once more, even as they drove away. 

\- - - - - - - - - -  
Part Three

They entered Maaya Sato’s home the next evening. 

Ishimaru did his part by allowing them to enter the house quietly, without forcing an entry or risking discovery. The moment they appeared at the front door, he was gone with the sound of ruffling wings. He had entered the home on his own, checking for guests or anything that might hinder them. Finding nothing, he then walked to the front door and unlocked it from the inside to let the brothers into the house. 

“We must be on the lookout for a mirror, as Sato-san explained to you. Based on my personal experience it is not often that a new mirror is haunted by a ghost, so we are better off staying on the lookout for an antique. Since no broken mirrors were discovered in the home upon her mental breakdown it is also my guess that we are looking for a free standing mirror or one hanging on a wall-“ 

Daiya looked down, then made a small hand motion to ask for Ishimaru to be silent. The two other men looked down to follow Daiya’s gaze. 

There were flower petals on the floor. 

Mondo looked around as he brought his gun out. There were no windows near the hallway. Not only that, but no sounds from the outside world. There were no open windows in this home. No overturned pots, no open packages. 

First just one lone flower petal. A soft pastel pink, the color of tender flushed cheeks and rosy lips. Half a meter away laid some more petals. The flower petals led into a path down the hallway. The further they got along, the more concentrated they became, until the floor was no longer visible under the sheer amount of petals leading off into one of the rooms. 

Ishimaru nodded. He stepped forward, with intent to lead their way down the hall. Mondo tried to stop him by placing a hand on his shoulder. 

“… it makes the most sense for me to act as a shield, in case there is anything dangerous there,” Ishimaru said in a hushed tone. There was no bite or aggression in his voice this time. In this moment, they were on a mission together. Despite their disagreements, they were partners. “I’ll move first. You and Daiya-san can cover from behind,” he finished. 

A moment of silence, then Mondo flipped his gun around. He offered the handle to Ishimaru. 

“Not without this. Angel mojo or not, you need it. Salt packed bullets, man’s best friend,” he said. Ishimaru took the gun. After he received his nod of approval from Ishimaru, Mondo took his hand off and stepped back. He reached behind his back and tugged out his personal favorite backup weapon, the Crowbar (iron infused with salt, charms and protective symbols carved up and down the shaft, and damn good at opening locked doors. Their guns might have been a man’s best friend, but this puppy was a hunter’s wet dream). 

The three of them went down the hallway together. 

The room they walked into was nothing like the other rooms. Obviously it was a bedroom, or rather, had once been. The area they stood in now and peered into was far too large to be able to fit into Maaya’s home. Daiya felt as though he had walked into a storybook. The bed was grand and luxurious, with golden bedposts and soft silk curtains draped around it. Everything had an ancient and regal appearance. The entire room looked like it had been transported back in time to traditionalist eras when Japanese monarchy and emperors ruled over the people. If this was the period of royalty, then this was the bedroom of a princess. Only the most expensive looking tapestries and vases lined the walls of the room. The walls and the furniture were from a history book, but the entire floor was from a dream. A small brook flowed through the center of it. Fresh and fragrant flowers bloomed from both sides of the water. The floor was covered with green grass, more petals scattered all around. 

Finally, there was the mirror. The ornate mirror that hung on the wall, showing an almost perfect reflection of the inside of the room. Almost perfect, because there was no woman sitting inside the room, but there /was/ one sitting in the reflection. She had her back turned towards the real room and was combing her long raven colored hair. They could not see her face. 

“The way to collect the tears of a ghost is to claim them during the extermination,” Ishimaru said quietly. None of them moved. He spoke in a low and even tone. “We need to first lure her out of the mirror, and then press one of your charms to her forehead. Once she’s frozen, we can sever her tie to the mirror. She’ll shed three tears before her spirit decomposes. We’ll have to catch two of them.” 

“I’m going to talk to her,” Daiya said. 

“That is a /very/ unwise choice,” Ishimaru replied. He looked sternly at Daiya. “You know as well as I do that ghosts are a very dangerous foe to face off against. One that has been deceased for this long will have /no/ logic left to reason with. You are walking into a trap.” 

“Let him go,” Mondo said. He nodded to his brother. 

Despite Ishimaru’s protests, Daiya gave his gun to Mondo. He picked up a beautifully ornate chair that had been sitting besides the door, brought it with him, set it up right in front of the mirror, and sat down. Right in front of their ghost. 

Whether deceased or living, the Diamond Brothers refused to commit any sort of physical action against a woman unless she hit first. No exceptions. Until a woman proves that she has intent to harm someone, harming a woman is the most rotten thing a man can do. Mondo would stay back and keep his eyes on Daiya’s conversation. If anything fishy started happening, or the ghost attacked, Mondo would be there in two seconds to pry her off and slug her back with the crowbar. But until then… danger be damned. Nothing would taint Daiya’s personal moral code. 

“Hello~” Daiya said to start the conversation. He spoke to the ghost’s back. She continued to brush her hair, as if she could not hear him. 

“Ahh… My name is Daiya Oowada. Tall guy back there is my brother, Mondo Oowada. Guy standing next to him is Kiyotaka Ishimaru. He’s not actually a guy, he’s an Angel. A guy Angel. Hey! Ishimaru! Wave a bit!” he announced with a broad smile. Even Ishimaru could not combat Daiya’s friendly nature, and waved his hand just a bit. 

“See? We’re friendly guys. What’s your name, miss?” 

The brush stopped. Slowly, ever so slowly, she put the brush down on her lap. Daiya patiently waited for her to respond. Perhaps she would speak up or make some sort of action to-

You call yourself an older brother? 

Daiya blinked. He was… suddenly confused. There was no way to describe what had happened but, he heard something. But he didn’t hear it. It was as if he heard a thought, but did not think it personally. He checked back to his brother and the angel, they did not seem to have heard the same thought. He looked back to 

Don’t act like you’re some saint. I know what you did. I know what you are. 

There it was again. The echo of nothingness as it somehow filled his entire mind. This was why ghosts were dangerous. No matter what protection you had, if there was a crack inside you they could slip through, they could get into your mind. Daiya put a hand up towards Mondo. He kept his eyes firmly on the woman in the mirror. He turned his wrist until his palm was facing directly towards Mondo in a “stop” motion. They developed this non-verbal language years before, in case either of them were willingly walking into a situation that might risk possession or mental stress. As long as Daiya’s fingers were pointed to the ceiling, that was the signal for “I’ve got this, bro”. If the ghost became too powerful of a bad influence or force, he’d flip his wrist until his fingers were pointing down towards the ground, using his last moment of mental clarity or control. That was the signal for “I’ve lost control, you step in now and do what you need to do”. He’d give a thumbs up as soon as the danger was passed. From the corner of his eye, Daiya saw Mondo clench the crowbar and raise it up slightly. Ishimaru stood beside him, moving his finger from the safety position on the side of the gun, to the trigger. 

Daiya concentrated back on the woman. Her head turned slightly towards him. He could still not see her face. 

I know what you did to your own father. I know behind your smiles and laughs you have a black bubbling hatred. We’re the same, Daiya. You’ve tasted blood and you’ll never be pure again. Do you really think you can keep your brother pure? Do you think he actually /is/ pure? 

Daiya, admittedly, felt a surge of negative emotions. He felt panic. He felt angry. He was cornered like a wild animal. He could see the woman’s face now. It was grotesque. Her eyes burned like hot coals. A black tongue darted out of her mouth. It was dripping with dark curdled blood. Her nose was falling away from her face. He wanted to lash out, or run away, or… 

“Ah!” suddenly the negative emotions here gone. Daiya was back to smiling. “I got it! You’re trying to scare me away!” he said triumphantly. 

All of the noise and the thoughts and horror coming from her face flashed away in a single moment. Boom. Got it. Daiya grinned and looked over his shoulder, giving Mondo and Ishimaru the thumbs up to let them know they could settle down. Even after all of that, still slightly shaken up, Daiya pulled his chair closer to the mirror. She had her face turned away again, but this time bowed her head down. She tried to hide her face with her hair. 

“I knew it…” Daiya went on. He spoke softly now. “Buy hey now, don’t be shy… I gotta hand it to you, you really had me good!! I got really scared!” he assured her. Of course he was still on his guard. Ghosts played this game sometimes. They could act innocent and defeated then suddenly lash out violently. But Daiya did not really think she would do that. She was not that sort of spirit. “Let’s try this again. You got a name, miss?” 

“… Shinobu,” the ghost said. Now she turned to look at Daiya’s face. 

She looked as the room did. Like a princess. Face painted with a soft white crème to look like the full moon, lips tinted and eyes lined. Her eyes were deep and dark, beautiful but hard to meet as she kept looking to the side. Her long hair framed her face, obscuring most of it. 

“It is very nice to meet you, Shinobu-sama,” Daiya said politely. That honorific make her turn her head down more, so she could hide behind that long hair of hers. 

They spoke to one another for a while. Daiya made most of the conversation, while Shinobu chirped up quietly at certain points to provide responses or comments. Anything just to get the ghost calmed down a bit, more responsive and trusting. 

“Ah, Shinobu-sama. I would love to sit here and talk with you all day! But… you know you have somewhere more important to be, right?” he asked. The ghost gave no reply. She merely tucked a strand of hair behind one of her ears, tilting her head in confusion. “You know… to heaven,” Daiya explained. He spoke softly once more. “The human world is no place for someone like yourself… you’ll be much happier once you pass on. Besides, this isn’t your home… it’s not right to camp out and stay here when someone else paid for it,” he said. 

Suddenly, the ghost girl looked very sad. She shook her head. 

“I cannot,” she said. 

“Why?” 

“… only beautiful things belong in heaven,” Shinobu declared. Her eyes were cast down once more. 

“Exactly my point,” Daiya said. He gave her a small thumbs up, for encouragement. “You’re very pretty! You’ll fit in just fine!” 

He heard wind chimes rustle, as if the sound was faintly blown into the room. Her eyes darted up to his own. She was shocked. Her plump lips hung open ever so slightly. The sudden emotion on her face was overwhelming enough to make Daiya forget how to breathe for a moment. 

“Do you really mean that? You think I am…” 

“Beautiful,” Daiya insisted. His smile was warm and caring, a welcome gesture of kindness that reflected the same emotion in his eyes. 

For the first time since they began talking, the ghost girl smiled. The brook gliding through the middle of the room stopped flowing. In that moment, all sound stopped. The only noise in the room, in the world it seemed that could be heard, was her own. She spoke… as she reached up. The ghost’s hand reached up and ever so slowly pulled at the side of her black hair. It slid off of her head like water flowing off of a smooth stone. 

The hair underneath the wig was short. Very short, and dark brown. Now that the wig was not covering that face anymore, it was clear that the ghost’s jaw line was very strongly defined. The face had powerful cheek bones, was square. Cut like fine marble, but thick in shape and structure. The face of a man, and the soul of a woman. 

“Thank you,” Shinobu said. She spoke softly, touched by a stranger’s kindness. Tears began to flow down her cheeks. Warm tears, of peace and happiness. 

Without a word, she offered her hands forward out of the mirror and towards Daiya. He held his own out under hers. The tears from her cheeks moved down, to her neck. To her shoulder. They danced over the fine fabric, until they formed a small pool in her hands. Material from the sleeve of her kimono wrapped itself around the puddle, forming a small pink bag tied with a red string. 15 tears in one small purse. 

As soon as the bag hit Daiya’s hands, the image was gone. Everything was. 

The room once more looked like the upscale modern bedroom of a Japanese businesswoman. The mirror was only a simple reflection of the room. The chair Daiya sat on was nothing more than a wooden one. 

Daiya held the bag up triumphantly. He turned to face his little brother and the angel, with a smile and a wink. 

“Told ya Onii-chan would take care of it!” he exclaimed joyfully. Mondo looked amazed. Ishimaru did as well, but with a twist on his emotions. 

Zadkiel was ashamed. 

In older times, so long ago, he had been known as the “Angel of Mercy”. That was his title, that was his role. Was he not the angel who went to Abraham, pleading for him to not sacrifice his own child to the lord when he did not have to? Was he not the angel who once vowed to never slay or harm any soul while there was still a chance for their salvation? 

Years of wars and fighting had gone straight to his heart, and he had not even noticed it. For so long he had followed the strict rules his superiors had set in place, about how to deal with every situation and every soul like machine work. No exceptions, no excuses, only orders. In doing his job so efficiently, Zadkiel had lost part of himself. 

He looked at the two brothers. Mondo ran to Daiya, and both were whooping and hollering and celebrating their grand success. 

Ishimaru had always been willing to learn new ways of thought and process from other religions, from other spirits. It had never crossed his mind that perhaps, the most important lessons he had to learn could be from two humans. Two brothers. 

That night, he did not disappear when the two brothers sat down to eat dinner together. He stayed with them and ate a meal. It was the first serving of human food he had ever eaten. In that moment, he realized he had never tasted or felt something so nourishing and delightful before. Ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also I've had some people around expressing interest in making art for my fanfics? ; A ; Uhm.... not that you have to of course! But if you do, for fun, PLEASE SEND ME A LINK!!!!!!!!! 8D I would love to put your art up in the author comments, so other people can see them! (and also stare at your art all day long I love arts gosh I do)


	4. Like a Bird on a Wire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Between their last and next mission, Mondo and Ishimaru are left alone. It is the first time Ishimaru shows Mondo his wings, but it shall not be their last.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> popped that baby out real fast!! These "intermission" scenes go a lot faster for me writing, so they can come pretty soon after the main chunk of plot chapters. :] Thank you guys for keeping up and following along!!! If you have any questions, any art to share, comments or whatever, either leave a comment here or send me a message at mooeydooey.tumblr.com! The more you comment, the more energy and excitement I get into getting these chapters out!!!

It wasn’t often that Ishimaru and Mondo were left alone together. In the past three weeks that they had been acquainted with one another, they had only been together without Daiya a handful of times. All of those times only lasted for about a minute before Daiya returned with food or supplies or whatever he had gone off to do. This was the first time the two of them had been left behind on their own. 

They were in the middle of a mountain path, driving through on their way to the next town, when Mondo’s bike had a sudden meltdown. Nothing too serious thankfully, just a small busted part that would have to be replaced. 

“We passed a garage on our way here not too long ago,” Daiya had said. “I’ll take this part over, get the new one, and we can head off after we fix it up!” 

There was no other way to go about it. Ishimaru couldn’t leave on his own to retrieve the part. Even if Mondo gave him a full novel of instructions and information about motorcycle repair, he was sure Ishimaru would not be able to pick out the right replacement part. He didn’t know motorcycles like Daiya. So that left one of the two brothers. They rode on the back of one another’s motorcycles every now and then, but the two brothers had an unspoken rule that “You don’t drive another man’s motorcycle”. Since two of them had to stay behind with Mondo’s motorcycle (the buddy system was a necessity when sitting in the woods), that left only Daiya. 

So Daiya drove away, leaving Mondo and Ishimaru behind. They both knew he’d be gone for at least two hours. That left a lot of time for a lot of shit to happen. 

Which at first… it didn’t. Neither said a word to one another. Mondo amused himself by tinkering with his bike, with his weapons, fixing his hair. Ishimaru amused himself by sitting on the ground and staring blankly at one of the trees nearby. 

10 minutes passed. Ishimaru started to meditate and Mondo climbed a tree for the hell of it. 20 minutes passed. Ishimaru started to do sit ups, Mondo tried to call Chihiro but found that he had absolutely no service even if he held the phone up to the heavens. 40 minutes passed. Both ended up sitting next to one another looking at the same tree. 

Mondo broke the silence. He was too bored to give a shit about pride anymore. 

“So uh… you’re old,” Mondo stated with outstandingly intellectual grace and poise. 

“I am one of the angels who had been active for very long, yes,” Ishimaru responded. He spoke as if he were speaking at a job interview for a position he needed but loathed entirely. Appropriately polite, but with a clear disdain behind the politeness. “And you, by comparison, are very young.” 

“If you start talking like that, it’s completely justified if I start calling you an old fart,” Mondo said. He was smiling ever so slightly now. It was a funny mental image, but also a little true. Even if he had a young body, there were many things Ishimaru did that were a bit … ancient. The sort of guy who would insist on reading all of the terms and conditions on a web site before checking off that he was old enough to enter it. 

Ishimaru didn’t answer. Mondo frowned. ‘Well fuck you too, man’. 

They sat still and silent once more. Mondo would have been quiet for the rest of the time now just to spite him, but he had just one more question he wanted answered. His curiosity on the matter was too strong. 

“You got wings?” 

Ishimaru, to this point, had only ever looked like a normal man around Mondo’s age. The only way one could tell there was something not quite human about him was by getting a good look at his eyes and seeing how unnaturally intense they were. Besides his weird thing for wearing that soldier’s uniform, nothing else looked questionable. No glowing aura, no halo. 

“… I do,” Ishimaru said. 

In this moment, Ishimaru had to think about his next statement. Mondo, of course, was curious about the working mechanics of angels. He was a man of machines; those types were always curious about how new discoveries functioned. Mondo’s next question would be something along the lines of wanting to see Ishimaru show them off. He had the time to bring his wings in and out, sure. But was it worth the time and effort?? 

Ishimaru looked to the side. His eyebrows darted up a bit when he realized Mondo was no longer looking at him like Ishimaru’s mere existence made him pissed off. He looked… genuinely curious. To Ishimaru, Mondo looked like a child being shown his first rare exotic bird. He’d seen that look hundreds of times before. It wore Ishimaru’s stubborn judgment down. 

They had to get along with one another, somehow, in order to do well on this mission. If this sort of act was what it took to gain Mondo’s respect, Ishimaru would do so. 

“… do you want to see them?” Ishimaru asked. 

The excited smile on Mondo’s face was instantaneous. “Yeah!” he said. Once he heard himself out loud he realized how silly he must look, so he tried to screw his face up into a once again hardened expression. He could push his eyebrows down, he could frown, he could scrunch his nose up, but he couldn’t get the sense of wonder and excitement out of his eyes. 

Ishimaru started to remove his jacket. He set that aside on the ground, neatly laid out. He took his t-shirt off afterwards and laid the shirt right on top of his jacket. He positioned himself on his knees on the ground. 

“I must warn you in advance, forming my natural wings in my current human vessel is not an easy task. Angels must do this sometimes in order to show their status to humans, so it /is/ possible. I may appear to be in pain, but please do not interfere. This is a task I’ve done plenty of times before,” Ishimaru explained. 

Mondo looked a bit less excited now. Still just as curious, but less excited. 

“Hey… you… pain??” Mondo questioned. He was much less sure of his request now. “Listen, I’m not saying I ain’t curious but… if it’s that much of a hassle, you don’t have to-“ 

“I want to,” Ishimaru said honestly. “It’s a symbol of trust between us. And despite our past disagreements, I do want to have your trust and respect, Oowada-kun”. 

Mondo was either struck speechless, or simply agreed and didn’t say a word. Ishimaru took this as his cue to begin. 

The first minute was just him sitting. He had his hands planted firmly on the ground, sitting on his knees, closing his eyes while they both waited. Just as Ishimaru could instantly transport his human vessel from one side of the world to the other, he could transport just his wings from his spiritual form if he concentrated correctly. He just had to bring them up, start growing them from his back… 

The process began when Ishimaru groaned and Mondo heard the first wet cracking sound coming from Ishimaru’s back. First, one wet crack. The sound was deeply reminiscent of a twig being snapped underwater. This one was followed by several other smaller cracks in rapid succession. This went on for 10 painful minutes before Mondo could see the movement. Just a small ripple at first, then two bumps rising up from his shoulder blades. The skin swelled over these bumps, it rippled and turned white as more and more internal pressure pressed up on it. 

“Hey…. Moron…. He- … Ishimaru, stop!!” Mondo tried saying. 

Ishimaru wasn’t looking well. He didn’t sound well either. At this point he was dry heaving, as if his body wanted to discharge vomit onto the ground but had none to offer up. Despite the obvious physical pain and the sickness he did not move. Even when Mondo began to rise up to move over, intending to shake him by the shoulder to put a stop to it, Ishimaru only raised one hand to tell him to stop. It was almost here. Stopping now would be a waste of time. 

“th…t…ah…” Ishimaru said now. His voice was ragged as his breathing. Every word was harshly pronounced in pained effort. “next part is… going to be very unsettling. Please avert your eyes if you don’t wish to see it,” he forced out. Mondo would not look away. He’d seen plenty of disturbing transformations before, like hell he was going to take his eyes off of the angel now. 

Very unsettling was a spot on term for it. Certainly not for the weak of stomach. Ishimaru pressed his face down into the ground and curled his back up, while the skin on his back began to tear. Small pockets and holes began to form in the flesh on his back. Blood began to ooze from those spots. Not flowing like regular blood did, it /oozed/. Mondo was momentarily reminded of the pus he had seen on one victim in a case he and his brother had covered months ago. The blood curdled and clumped like that pus. Like a mucus, and yet it was gone before it even hit the ground. It just… vanished. 

Mondo continued watching. Through the bloody pulp he could now see… a small flash of color. Of white. A few feathers poking out from under the mess. Then a few more. Ishimaru’s entire body shook as the white strained against the sticky blood until… 

A flash of bright light. Mondo squinted his eyes and saw the two wings explode out from behind the angel’s back. Mondo covered his face with his arm as he expected to feel a large spray of that disgusting bloodpus hit everywhere around him but… nothing. He waited a moment. He lowered his arm and opened his eyes once the bright light dimmed. 

Ishimaru was sitting up now. His back was turned towards Mondo so he could see that there was not a trace of gore or injury anywhere surrounding the base of the wings or on the ground or on his back. In fact, the base of the wings were secured with healed flesh. It looked as though those wings had always been there. Now that Mondo was sure that there was no mess he was free to look at the rest of Ishimaru’s wings. 

It was a difficult task. The sheer size of the wings made it difficult to take them in all at once, especially now that Ishimaru had them stretched out as far as they could go. They were white. White all over, pure like freshly fallen snow that had not yet been spoiled by dirty feet. When stretched out, each wing on its own must have been at least half a meter longer than Mondo’s height. They were wide and thick. 

Mondo was not able to find his words again for some time. Once he did, his voice was hesitant. 

“Are you-“ 

“I am no longer in any physical pain,” Ishimaru explained before he could ask. He turned his body around now, so he could face and talk to Mondo. He let his wings relax. They folded in on themselves, resting comfortably along his back. “You see, the process itself has it’s… difficulties,” he said. He stopped before he got to the explanation. 

Ishimaru had expected Mondo to tell him something along the lines of ‘Stop showing off!’. He did not expect that, right after the worry about the pain was gone, Mondo would look like /this/. His eyes were wide, he had the excited smile on his face again. He was…. Curious. Intrigued. Genuinely so. Ishimaru tilted his head to the side, about to question Mondo’s interest. He stopped himself when Mondo made a gesture with his hands. It was a ‘Yes? Go on! Please!’ motion. 

Ishimaru cleared his throat. “Well… you see, these are my /actual/ wings. But this is not my real spiritual body… the form I am currently in is what we angels call a ‘Vessel’. It is a human that we design, and that we place somewhere in the human world… we have a “placeholder” soul in it that makes decisions and creates a natural life for the vessel, until we need to use it. Then we find our vessel and our celestial spirit enters its form,” Ishimaru explained. 

For a moment, Mondo looked skeptical. “Like a … possession?” 

“No, not like a possession. You see, A possession is a spirit who takes over a human body that already has a soul in it, and forces control over the human form. Our vessels are not possessions because the spirit inside of the vessel is already aware of its role and purpose ever since the day it is born. They willingly give control of the vessel back to us once we need it, and take control back once we exit it. An angel can possess a human body, but it creates a lot of stress and damage in the body since a normal human isn’t built to house such a strong celestial soul. Vessels are bred to have the strength to hold the soul of an angel, you see!” Ishimaru replied. Despite his previous disagreements with Mondo he found his tone and his energy growing more and more excited the more he went on explaining the process. It was mostly due to Mondo’s own reaction. 

This man, this human, actually enjoyed learning about supernatural forces that he had not previously encountered. Ishimaru had not pegged him as that type. Upon first glance, he seemed like the sort of man whose mantra was “kill first, question later”. Ishimaru’s favorite way of bonding with humans, with any spirit, was sharing information. There was nothing, in his opinion, that was a better bonding experience than sharing information between one another. 

Ishimaru had judged Mondo. And he had judged him incorrectly. 

Mondo too, was starting to see a new side to this angel he had previously considered a pain in the ass. 

When Ishimaru finally got to smiling, when he relaxed and went on some tirade or speech about something that interested him, it suited him. Mondo was glad to see that Ishimaru had another part to his attitude that was not just stern. That was not just rules and order and fulfilling his “chairman” role. 

The two spoke to one another for the next hour. A real conversation. It began with just questions and answers, took a route down some digressions and side-rants, finally turned into the two of them bonding. Yes, Bonding. Punching each other’s shoulders and laughing with one another, manly claps on the back, loud baritone laughter and grins. Who knew, the angel could actually joke around!! 

Mondo had Ishimaru in a headlock now. At some point their conversation had turned into: “Yeah? Well, I bet I could pin you down easy! You’ve got some muscles on that vessel but it’s nothing compared to street strength, man!” “I have thousands of years of battle experience, besting me would not be possible, Mondo-kun!” “I’ll show YOU battle experience!”. 

Ishimaru was laughing. Loud and unrestricted laughter, as Mondo’s free hand ruffled through the feathers on his wings to mess them up. Yes, he could have easily thrown Mondo off at this point (perhaps into one of the nearby trees). But Ishimaru could not remember the last time he had taken part in something so /fun/. He let it continue. The feathers on his wings puffed out, making Mondo laugh even harder. 

“Man!!!! You look like a damn bird right now!!! Your wings are all puffy and big!!” Mondo shouted. 

Their laughter stopped when they heard the sound of a motorcycle getting closer. Mondo immediately knew it was Daiya’s, he could recognize the exact tone and sound of the engine. 

“Ah! Daiya’s back! Ishima-“ he began. He stopped. 

Ishimaru was gone. Where he had been only moments ago under Mondo’s arm was only empty air now. 

‘Ah. If it took him that long to pull his wings out, he must need some time to put them back in again’ Mondo thought. He relaxed on the ground once again as Daiya pulled up. 

“Yo, lil bro! I got the part! Let’s put this sucker in and get roll-….” Daiya trailed off. His eyes were on the ground, looking at Ishimaru’s discarded shirt and jacket. He looked around the clearing, seeing no sign of the angel anywhere around them. 

“He uh… went to piss,” Mondo said. He wasn’t sure if Ishimaru wanted Daiya to know about the wings or not, so he’d play it on the safe side. 

The statement Mondo gave him only made him look more confused. An angel who leaves a clearing to go to the bathroom, but leaves his shirt and jacket behind neatly on the ground? He accepted it, though. He shook his head and he shrugged. 

“… That guy is really weird, bro.” 

“Tell me about it.” 

Somewhere far away, where rocks are hot and the air is filled with terrified cries and screams, there is a large pool. The blood inside of it is dark. It bubbles and boils. Small charred creatures that were once men drag themselves along the hot stone with large pails, endlessly filling the pool with more and more red blood. 

But no… not a pool. A bath. 

The form of a woman slowly lowers herself into the thick liquid. She stands in the middle of her scalding bath and breathes in deeply. To her, the smell is sweet. Sweet as the cries of agony drifting through the air above her. Sweet as the eyes of a hopeless man before his closest friend crushes his skull in with a tire iron. Her blue eyes drift and look down to the surface. Her hand passes over. As the blood ripples, it shows the image of two brothers sitting side by side while they try to fix a motorcycle. It shows an Angel crying out in agony as a set of white wings slowly crawl back into his body. It shows a small pink bag tied with red string and a dog buried in the ground up to its neck crying out for food and water. 

Her red lips tug up into a smile. 

“Ahh, my my. So these are the two destined to fight me. They even have a little bird helping them… how sweet,” she said. She chuckled. A light ‘Upuupuupuupuu’ that rippled the blood around her all on its own. “I think I’ll have to send someone along to make things more… interesting.” 

She settled down into the bath, sitting along the edge now. Her long red nails danced over the surface of the liquid in her bath. She directly addressed the woman sitting outside of the bath now. Her beloved family, a figure in a dark kimono with a serious face. “How about you, Mukuro??” 

Instantly, her sister nods. “Yes, Junko. I shall.” 

“Good!!” Junko says. She is quite pleased. “Now, Oneeee-chan~ You should join me in the bath. You can wash my back.” 

While he is pulling his wings back in, Ishimaru vomits. It is no bodily substance… only spiders and centipedes. A bad omen. One that he will not tell Mondo or Daiya about.


	5. Heart of an Avenging Spirit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys continue their journey to capture ingredients, to stop Junko from completing her takeover of the Yokai Parade. But what happens when things get personal, and the life of a small dog gets involved in the gang's affairs?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ((GUESS WHO IS BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK 
> 
> DANG THAT TOOK ME A LONG TIME BUT LOOK AT THIS WOAH A CHAPTER UPDATE. 
> 
> I have been having a LOT of trouble in my personal life sorting things out, and hit the biggest writers block of my life ..... but I have been getting SO many good comments from people about this fic, that it really kept me going and kept me working on it! So after months of struggle and rewrites I give you, the next chapter!!!!! Hopeflly I'll update a teeny bit faster from now on! ))

Mondo wakes up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. 

For the first several minutes of his awakening, he is groggy minded and confused. He tries with every ounce of energy he has just to remember... what has that dream been? 

He recalls only small flashes of information when he gives it his best effort. 

A field full of red spider lilies, as far as the eye can see. It’s sunny. They’re all swaying in the wind that blows gently against his cheeks. Mondo feels like a child and an old man at the same time. He is both above and below the flowers, laying in the field. He sees bare feet moving towards him. Daiya is also laying in the flowers. Red spider lilies grow up from his stomach. Ishimaru’s bare feet stop next to Mondo’s head. He’s saying something that Mondo can’t understand. Daiya is gone now. Mondo feels dread rising up. 

This is usually when his nightmares turn into a bloodbath everywhere, a giant cloaked man screaming at him that he should have done better. That his brother would have done better, and he’ll never live up to that. But instead he feels a hand lightly on his shoulder. The warmth he feels explodes from the inside out, melting the image away to a new scene. Now they are both lying down. Now Mondo is on top of Ishimaru. Now Both are nude, sweat drips own Mondo’s shoulders and down the curve of his back. He kisses Ishimaru deeply. He pulls Ishimaru’s tongue into his mouth and they slide against one another. As the two orgasm simultaneously, the closed red spider lilies around them all bloom at once. There is a mixed feeling within Mondo of finally experiencing what pure happiness and completion feels like, along with deep sorrow and sense of loss at the same time. He looks back to the field now, past Ishimaru’s discarded and withering wings. The wings are burning away into nothing. Daiya slowly floats away in the sea of redness. Mondo weeps openly, but his tears are flower seeds. But it’s ok because he can hear his dog barking and knows that Daiya will be safe and happy with him... 

Mondo stopped all of his thoughts except for one. 

‘I never had a dog...’ 

He repeated it over and over to himself in his mind, focusing on only /that/. He really could hear the faint sound of a distressed animal. It was probably a dog. But it wasn’t familiar, because Mondo never owned a dog. 

He sat up from his bed roll on the ground, body caked in cold sweat, and looked into the forest. Daiya and Mondo were sleeping there for the night, Ishimaru vanished on some sort of holy side mission in search of their next target. 

‘I never had a dog’ 

Mondo stood up, walking barefoot off into the forest. 

‘ I never had a dog, I never had a dog....’ 

Mondo Oowada never owned a dog. He really liked dogs, but they never had the money or safety while growing up to keep one. Mondo repeated this thought to himself over and over again. He repeated it as his new personal mantra while he followed the sound of the dog deeper and deeper along the forest path. He would only think about that dog he never had. He didn’t have time to think about that dream, of /any/ parts of that dream. He would not. He has busy. He had a dog to find because it wasn’t his own, Mondo Oowada never had a dog- 

Mondo stopped immediately. The image before him was the single most heart wrenching thing he had ever seen. Yes, in all of his years working with the angry spirits of the deceased and seeing justice flushed down gutters for decades, no sight had caused such a huge swell of rage and of sadness in him as this one did. 

There was a dog in the middle of the road. The whole dog was not visible, however. Most of it was buried beneath the ground. The only part of the animal that was above ground was its head. It wasn’t a big dog, couldn’t be any longer than one of Mondo’s forearms. It was small and had once been white, but was now stained and dirtied by mud and dust. It could barely move its head towards the bowl placed a short but unreachable distance away from it. The bowl was full of water. It sat there, taunting the dog who could not stretch his tongue far enough to sip one drop from the bowl. Even as it saw Mondo it continued to whine and perk its ears up, moving his head around as if movement could now help him escape and approach this new stranger. 

The dog was lucky that it could not understand human facial expression, or was too starved and tired to be scared. Mondo’s face instantly contorted to his “demonish rage” when he connected this new information together. Whoever did this was damn lucky they didn’t stick around or show up when Mondo was there. That poor bastard would have ended up with their face being beaten into a pulp, before they even had the chance to explain their reasoning. 

Mondo’s hands were shaking. He wanted to help, but he knew he couldn’t. Not right away, not right at this moment. If he tried to help that dog right now, his hands would go out of control from the anger and stress and he might end up accidentally hurting it even more than it already had suffered. So Mondo first moved to the side of the path, chose a tree, and started punching away at it. The hardest hits he could muster in five good swipes, hard enough to make the wood screech from the stress and scrape Mondo’s rock hard knuckles. 

Just 5 solid hits. That’s what he needed to get the uncontrollable strain out of his muscles, before he ran to the dog in the road. He knelt down, petting it on the head. As gently as humanly possible with shaky hands and knuckles freshly caked in blood. He did not feel the need to hide or mask the tears running down his cheeks, even as he forced a smile on for the sake of the dog. 

“Hey, buddy.... Don’t worry, ok? I’m going to have you out real soon,” Mondo said to the dog before he began his work. 

Daiya and Ishimaru showed up while Mondo was in the middle of digging. He did not want to make the dog wait any longer, nor accidentally injure him by digging anything sharp into the ground, so he moved the dirt and rocks aside with his hands. He worked quickly and efficiently, stopping every once in a while to check and make sure the dog was still breathing. He did not notice, nor did he care about the damage it was doing on his fingernails. How his hands, rough as they were, were getting scraped raw from the harsh earth around the dog. 

Ishimaru took a step forward, raising a hand as if to try to stop him. 

“Oowada-ku-” 

Daiya clapped a hand on Ishimaru’s shoulder before he could go any further. Ishimaru looked back to Daiya. Daiya only shook his head, slowly. That meant: Don’t interrupt. Let him go on. Ishimaru stared back, ready to challenge Daiya’s judgment. Instead, he stepped back. The two of them stood quietly while Mondo went on digging with his hands, until he could pull the dog up from the ground and hold him protectively in his arms. 

“It’s ok.... look, you’re safe now,” Mondo assured the dog. He felt his heart breaking into even smaller pieces as the dog, with the only bit of energy the poor thing had, licked thankfully at Mondo’s arm. Mondo pet the dog’s head and wipes the dirt away from around his eyes. 

“You’re safe now. I got you, man..... I got you....” 

\- - - - - - - - - - - 

Mondo did not want to hear a single word about their “important mission” for the next three days. Around the clock, 24 hours a day, every single waking and snoozing minute he had was completely focused on the dog’s health. 

Right away, the small (Pomeranian, Mondo figured out after he gave the dog a bath and saw what sort of fluffy white coat he naturally had) dog accepted water but would not eat. Mondo had to coax him into first nibbling on a small strip of fish, eventually moving along his appetite until he was eating a proper serving of meat. Mondo was quite worried at first about the dog’s appetite. Much to Ishimaru’s disdain, he barely ate anything himself due to stress and worry about their new canine friend. 

But the dog did recover. Once he did, Mondo found that it would follow him where ever he went. When he slept, the first thing he’d see in the morning was a little black nose and shining dark eyes right in front of his face. The dog would wag his tail until Mondo gave him a polite “Good morning, little man,” which then turned into a cue for the dog to lick his face all over until Mondo sat up laughing. When Mondo ate, he ate with the dog in his lap. He’d share their meal together, giving it the parts of his meal he thought would be the healthiest for a dog to eat. When they rode on their motorcycles, the dog rode with Mondo. He sat in Mondo’s jacket, zipped up snugly, head poking out of Mondo’s jacket so he could watch the scenery whiz by as they sped down the country roads. 

“I can’t even go to take a piss without this little guy coming along to stand guard!” Mondo declared proudly to his brother and the angel as they packed their belongings one morning. Mondo sat on the ground, with his new friend sitting in his arms. 

With a certain lack of happiness that Mondo currently felt, Ishimaru spoke up. “Based on the way we found him, it does mean that someone in the area is trying to evoke the spirit of an Inugami. It’s a very old tradition, so it would be in our best interest to search the surrounding towns for leads, as well as checking that spot regularly. Our evoker might return to try to complete the summoning in the same position. It would be in our best interest if we find the one doing this before they try the summons again,” he said. 

“Damn straight!” Mondo exclaimed. Fucking sick, that’s what Mondo thought of this specific ritual. According to traditional black magic, the spirit of an Inugami is invoked by cruelty. Someone must take a common dog, and bury him in the ground up to his neck, with food or water just out of reach. They wait until the dog is almost dead, then come back to cut the head off of the dog. The head of the dog is buried underneath a street. A special shrine is prepared, then the head and body are reunited to evoke the spirit. 

Fucking sick. Fucking unforgivable, Mondo thought. He was so glad he was able to find this dog before such a terrible fate happened to him. 

“But uh...” Mondo added as a second thought “If this person is trying to evoke an avenging spirit, shouldn’t we wait around until they try a different tactic? If they try to summon up an Inugami of course we stop the bastard right away, but if they call up a Shikigami that might be our ticket into gaining that second ingredient, yeah?” 

It was Daiya who spoke up this time to answer, with a reassuring smile. “Inugami summoning take way longer than Shikigami summoning. By the time we find this guy, they’ll probably have gone for the Shikigami already! So we shouldn’t wait around too long if we want to catch him!” 

“Oh! Right, yeah!” Mondo responded. He looked back down to the dog in his arms. “And maybe you can help us sniff him out, huh?” he asked. He received many licks and kisses on his face as a response. Mondo laughed loudly. 

“Hell yeah! But if you’re going to be part of the team, we need to think up a name for you,” Mondo said now.

Chuck. After a small amount of deliberation and brainstorming, this became the name of their new travelling companion. Chuck, the small and brave and very puffy dog who was practically glued to Mondo’s heels. 

“I just didn’t see any reason for naming something that cannot communicate back to you,” Ishimaru explained after his initial response of ‘The Dog does not need a name’. Said phrase, which a certain Oowada brother whom had a strong and deep love for all dogs took great offense to. 

Despite his angelic comrade’s bad manner, Mondo spoke sweetly to Chuck and treated him as if he were an equal part of the team. Surely, Mondo figured, Ishimaru’s gloomy attitude was a result of the fact that Mondo wouldn’t listen to his sermons anymore. That he had another little pal to talk to. One he could pick up and make faces at and receive small kisses in return any time Ishimaru went off of “The apocalypse this” or “our mission that” or “duty soldiers whatever”. 

\- - - - - - - - - - - 

It’s one week later that they find what they are looking for, in the form of a woman scrambling in the dirt. 

She was old. Perhaps not as old as she looked, perhaps only in her late 30s, but the lines on her face and the bags under her eyes told tales of a women who lived through a century of hard struggles. She murmured to herself and cursed under her breath as her hands frantically tore up the earth on the dirt road. 

Where could it be? It had to be around here somewhere. She knew, she knew she had buried it right here. There was no chance that anyone could have taken it. She knew, and yet she found nothing. She was just one moment short of a panic attack when Daiya spoke up. 

“Ma’am? You looking for something?” 

Her eyes snapped over to the three men standing in the road, only a few meters away from her. The Oowada Brothers and their angel. Specifically, her eyes settled on Mondo, who held Chuck protectively in his arms. 

Mondo was not pleased with how this situation had turned out. He knew it was not the proper thing to do, but much of him had wished that it had been a male trying to evoke the Inugami spirit. If it had been a dude, at least Mondo could have taken some of his frustration out and beaten his ass. But no matter how cruel or black hearted, no matter how twisted and knotted her hair and ugly that look on her face was, he couldn’t hit a woman. He could only glare at her, and see an emotion in her eyes all too familiar to him. Anger. Pure hearted, blackened rage. 

“Give that back,” She said, arms stretched out towards Chuck. Instinctively, Mondo held Chuck closer. 

“Like hel-“

“GIVE THAT TO ME!” she shouted. Her voice strained in the middle of the forest, arms and body twisting as she put forth all the energy she could into her cry. As impressive as her feat of volume was, Mondo was no more convinced to unhand Chuck than he had before. 

“So what? You can bury him in the ground again and torture him? No way, Ya Bi-“ 

“Oowada-kun!” Ishimaru snapped, cutting his ally off. Mondo snarled, turning his head to give Ishimaru a piece of his mind, that it was not his place to just cut in and shut him up. This intention stopped once he realized, Ishimaru was pointing. 

Daiya spoke, while Mondo looked. “What were your intentions here? Why the Inugami?” 

His eyes followed what Ishimaru was pointing to. 

In his anger, Mondo had not noticed before. What his brother and Ishimaru had been looking at from the beginning…. The shape of a child standing next to the woman. As the woman’s grief grew, the child’s shape grew clearer. 

And the woman, she did sob. Arms wrapped tightly around herself, she stayed kneeling on the dirt. Her fingers twisted into the fabric of her shirt and the skin on her arms as she spoke. 

“My daughter…. My poor… sweet child…” she woman rasped out. “My baby girl. She was so sweet, and so innocent. This town is a safe town, all of the mothers let their children walk home from school on their own… but...” 

The image of the girl was visible now. A dainty and angelic child, with wide eyes and beautiful dark hair. She would have been quite the beauty, if not for the look of pain and sadness on her face as she looked to her mother. When she spoke, her small voice echoed as if from far away “Save me, Mommy….” 

“They found her dead…. The police said it was … i-… it was murder. My daughter, was raped and murdered, in my own home town,” the old woman sobbed. A flicker of hope flashed across her features once her arms stretched out towards Chuck. 

“Stop him, Mommy. Make him pay….” 

“But if… if I use the Inugami! I know she must be hurting, I know her soul must be around here somewhere, tortured from the pain… I can avenge her! I know who the culprit is, but the police can’t charge him…. I’ll charge him. I’ll charge him on my own…” 

Mondo stepped aside, so he could lean in closer and talk in a hushed voice to his brother. 

“That girl… ya think it’s a demon?” he asked. If it were indeed demon, that’d be the easiest route. Just a quick blast and an exorcism and then they could make their way onto the next town- 

But Daiya shook his head. “Can’t be. She can’t see her,” he said. Mondo looked once more. The woman made no motion towards acknowledging the girl, even when she became to walk in front of her and around to the other side. “We’re seeing her though. If it was just manipulating her thoughts it would show its real form, not a fake one….” At this, Daiya frowned. “… That’s her daughter,” he said. He kept his voice hushed, making sure only Mondo and Ishimaru could hear. 

A mother who sought vengeance for her daughter, so she could pass on peacefully to the next life. A daughter who needed justice, before she could be set free from the pain of her connection to earth. Mondo held the key to giving them both what they wanted so badly, and yet he held Chuck tighter. 

Not even for a woman in need. Chuck was family now. That was Mondo’s priority. 

“I can see your daughter, Ma’am,” Daiya said, speaking up. Mondo snapped his head to the side. He was not sure what Daiya was planning, but if it included giving Chuck up, Mondo was not going along with it. But Daiya had a way with talking to people. If anyone could talk their way out of this situation and get everyone what they want in the end, it was him. 

Daiya stepped forward. Mondo watched as his brother knelt in front of the woman. 

“You can?” she asked, eyes wide with hope and glimmering with tears. 

“I can,” he said. He looked from the spirit of the girl, back to her mother. “I can hear her too,” he added. But Mondo knew that look on his face. That was not his sincere smile. Behind that smile was the deceitful sweetened words of a con artist. Mondo had done enough odd jobs for money, to know when Daiya was prepared to tell the truth or not. 

“Kill him Mommy,” the little girl said. 

“She wants you to know, she’s ok,” Daiya said. 

“Mommy, Kill him,” the girl said now. She spoke louder, more urgently. 

“She’s ready to move on, as soon as she knows you’re at peace. She doesn’t want you to sell your soul for this,” said Daiya. 

“Mommy! It hurts!” 

“She’s fine.”

“Mommy! Help me!” 

“She’s happy… you don’t need to avenge her. The police shall convict the culprit.” 

“Mommy!!!!” 

The woman paused, as if deciding between the two. Finally she bent her head down to the ground, and her shoulders sank. “… I… I suppose I have to just stay as I am…” she said to herself. 

This was when Daiya took out what he had been hiding in his pocket all along. A tag, for exorcisms. He slapped it quickly on the small girl’s head. Only the three men around could hear the small girl’s shrieks of anger and pain, before her ghostly body burnt up. The ashes drifted away in the wind, and she was gone. 

They left the woman on her own, who insisted she just wanted some time in the woods to be alone with her thoughts. They walked back down the path, back towards their motorcycles. 

“…. I really thought you were going to find a middle ground, Onii-chan,” Mondo said solemly as they walked together. The only thing that made him smile was the wag of Chuck’s tail, and the kisses he received from the dog. 

“…. Sometimes there isn’t a good way out of situations, Mon-chan,” Daiya responded. He looked to Ishimaru for a moment, as if the two shared a secret. “Sometimes the only thing that’s left is … someone’s gotta be the bad guy and tell it like it is.” 

“You didn’t even tell it like it was to her, you lied,” Mondo corrected, while he held the dog in his arms and scratched his stomach. He didn’t notice Ishimaru and Daiya stopped in the road until he had walked a few paces on his own. He turned back to look at the two of them, making a face. 

“What’s wrong? Hike’s got ya tuckered out?” he asked with a snide tone in his voice. The snide remark was somewhat foreful. Anything to distract himself from the fact that he did not like the looks on their faces. 

“Mondo…” Daiya started. Mondo’s panic rose immediately. He never used his full name, unless their situation was very serious. His heart started to pound with worry, and his throat clenched up. 

“What?” 

“… You have to have noticed by now. I could see how it’d be hard to see at first, but … he’s not going to make it out of this town,” Daiya said he looked down to Chuck. 

Worry escalated quickly into panic. 

“Chuck?! What the fuck?! Why not?! Is he sick or something?!” he shouted, louder than intended. 

Daiya wore /that/ look on his face. The one that said ‘please, please don’t make me say it. But I will if I have to’. Ishimaru stepped forward, about to speak, but Daiya held a hand up. This wasn’t a job for a soldier of the lord. This was the job of a brother. 

“ … You didn’t dig a dog out from the road” 

Mondo looked down at chuck, hands shaking. His shaking fingers, once stroking Chuck’s stomach, were now phasing through him. He could see the outline of his arm through Chuck’s body. 

“She already completed the sacrifice. You just collected the spirit,” Daiya stated. It was scary, how he could speak in such a flat tone, completely void of emotion even when his own heart was breaking inside while watching his brother suffer. 

That’s when the tears started. Chuck tilted his head, looking at Mondo’s traumatized and tear stained face with worry. He whined a few times, but in only a few moment he was floating. The jig was up, he didn’t need to follow the rules of gravity anymore. 

“Chuck…. I-“ Mondo tried to say, but words escaped him. He was thinking too hard. There had to be SOME way he could keep Chuck with them. He could be their specialized ghost pet! If they found the body, they could bring the body with them and set up a shrine in each new town- 

Chuck floated forward and started licking away Mondo’s tears as his brain struggled through any plan he could think of to save his dog. He was able to reach up once, just one last time, and move his fingers over that soft fur. 

“Buddy….” He wheezed out, as Chuck began to glow. He barked happily. Once. It sounded as per usual. Twice, it echoed through the space around him. Three times, it echoed through the forest. 

When Chuck vanished, Mondo fell to his knees. The only thing that was left in his hands was a tiny collar, with a small addition. A small dog tag, faintly glowing, in the shape of a heart. 

The heart of an avenging spirit. 

Daiya left and walked ahead, to do some repairs on the bikes while they waited for Mondo’s mourning and sorrow to pass. Ishimaru simply sat nearby. Not directly next to him, but nearby. He kept vigil over Mondo, allowing him time and space to weep and voice out the sound of his shattered heart. 

Mondo didn’t speak to Daiya for a week, after that. 

And the three drove on, in search of their final ingredient.


End file.
